LEINO, Eino


Peace

What is this fragrance around me?

What is this quietness?

What is this knowledge of peace in my heart?

What strange, great, new thing is this?

I can hear the flowers growing

and the talk of the trees in the wood.

I think all my old dreams are ripening,

all the hopes and the wishes I sowed.

Everything’s quiet around me,

Everything’s gentle and sweet.

Great flowers are opening up in my heart

with a fragrance of deepest peace.


Nocturne

The corncrake's song rings in my ears,

above the rye a full moon sails;

this summer night all sorrow clears

and woodsmoke drifts along the dales,

I do not laugh or grieve, or sigh;

the forest's darkness breathes nearby,

the red of clouds where day sinks deep,

the blue of windy hills asleep,

the twinflower's scent, the water's shade--

of these my heart's own song is made.

You, girl as sweet as summer hay,

my heart's great peace, I sing to you,

O my devotion, tune and play

a wreath of oak twigs, green and new.

I have stopped chasing Jack-o'-Lantern,

I hold gold from the Demon's mountain;

around me life tightens its ring,

time stops, the vane has ceased to swing;

the road before me through the gloom

is leading to the unknown room.

- translated by Keith Bosley